Page 149 - 1975 BoSox

ASWITCH-HITTING RESERVE catcher (.228 career batting average) who came up in the Red Sox farm
system, Tim Blackwell had his best season at the plate as a Chicago Cub, hitting .272 and catching full-time in 1980. Blackwell grew up in San Diego and participated in Little League baseball. A star in two sports at Crawford High School, he was voted Most Valuable Player in both baseball and football. As a senior, he batted .392 in league games, hit .355 overall, and was declared the third baseman selection for the All-League First Team and the All-San Diego California Interscholastic Federation second team. Upon high-school graduation in 1970, Blackwell attended Grossmont Community College in El Cajon, California.
On June 4, 1970, the Boston Red Sox selected the in elder-catcher — properly Timothy P. Blackwell — in the 13th round of the amateur draft. Red Sox scout Ray Boone signed him. Blackwell was assigned to Jamestown (New York-Penn League). In 28 games, he batted .235, with 10 RBIs, hit three doubles, and stole one base.
Blackwell opened 1971 with Greenville (Class A, Western Carolinas League) and became a full-time catcher during that season. e next year he moved to Winston-Salem (Advanced A, Carolina League). In 1973 the Red Sox promoted Blackwell to Double-A Bristol (Eastern League), where he batted .283. He tied for the league lead in double plays
by a catcher with 12. Next stop on the farm club express was Boston’s Triple-A squad, the Pawtucket Red Sox (International League).
At 1:00 A.M. on June 29, 1974, Blackwell got a very early morning wake-up call in Norfolk, Virginia. e 21-year-old catcher learned that the Red Sox’ Carlton Fisk
had injured his knee and was out for the season. Blackwell had 12 hours to get to Cleveland for a game against the Indians. “When Pawtucket manager Joe Morgan told me about it, I was dazed,” said Blackwell. “I never thought I would be going up to Boston this soon. After all, Carlton Fisk is one of the top catchers in the major leagues.”1 In fact, Pudge, a future Hall of Famer, topped Boston in home runs and runs batted in and was second to Red Sox captain Carl Yastrzemski with a .299 batting average when a collision at home plate terminated his year. As further evidence that Blackwell had not expected such a move, the young man had paid rent through August for his apartment in Cranston, Rhode Island.
With Fisk now gone and Red Sox pennant hopes in the balance, the team’s plan to x the backstop gap was to have Blackwell alternate with veteran Bob Montgomery.
So on July 3, 1974, before 27,730 in Boston’s Fenway Park, Blackwell made his major-league debut against the AL East Division rival Baltimore Orioles. He caught right-hander Reggie Cleveland. In the bottom of the third, Blackwell beat out an in eld single in his rst plate appearance and ended up on second base when Orioles third baseman Enos Cabell made an error. He singled again in the bottom of the fourth. In the seventh, Blackwell grounded out to second, and in the ninth he ied out to center elder Paul Blair. e nal score was Baltimore 6, Boston 4.
In August Blackwell turned 22 and Dave Langworthy of e Christian Science Monitor wrote that for the Southern Californian, “(S)itting behind the plate for the Red Sox is like playing catch with his baseball card collection. Luis Tiant and Juan Marichal, the two veteran right- handers who have accounted for over one-third of all victories in 1974, were
Tim Blackwell
by John Vorperian
142